First Thursdays are outdoor festivals that showcase the diversity of arts and humanities at IU Bloomington and offer a welcoming environment for students to explore new creative outlets and engage with the work of their peers and faculty members. Previous festivities have included everything from opera signers to breakdancers, stage-fighting to clay-throwing, and much, much more. Each First Thursday is unique, and each is a great opportunity to experience the wonderful work of artists, performers, and scholars from all across campus.
The April First Thursday will carry on the spirit of our larger festivals with a special emphasis on supporting local artists. The festival will offer unique opportunities for creative exploration and engagement, but with a focus on small-stage performances and individual activities spread out around several Open Air Venues. This First Thursday Trail will allow for better social-distancing and other public safety measures.
Inclement Weather Notice
First Thursday Cancellation
Due to unseasonably cold temperatures forecasted for April 1 and our 'rain date' of April 2, we must sadly cancel this month's festival. The temperatures are simply too cold for many of our performers and other participants to present the festival in its truest spirit.
We will be back stronger than ever in the fall, though, and we hope you'll join in the festivities beginning on September 2.
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
Conrad Prebys Amphitheater
6:00-7:30pm
Grammy Award-winning bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland and his band, Flamekeeper, headline the April First Thursday with an outdoor performance for the entire community. Cleveland hails from Henryville, IN, and he has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and before the U.S. Congress, among many other places. He has been recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Association as Fiddle Player of the Year 12 times.
Supporting Local Artists!
This month's First Thursday celebrates the enduring strength of Hoosier creativity. It's always important to show some love for the artists and musicians who make Bloomington such an inspiring place, but after more than a year of social distancing, they need the community's support more than ever. The April First Thursday Festival is the perfect opportunity to show your appreciation for the creative spirit that fuels our campus and town. Cheer on dozens of local performers on multiple stages, contribute to collaborative community-focused art projects, and visit Artists Row Presented by Baird, an open-air arts marketplace featuring work from student and community artists.
Sam Epstein, a senior in the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department, will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Choreography and minor in Music Composition. In his final semester at IU, he is choreographing a full-length story balletbased on Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood. This presentation includes excerpts of the balletperformed live by ballet majors and a discussion of Sam's creative process for this new work
The EGO performs fundamental guitar repertoire as well as orchestral and Pops works. From Vivaldi, Bach and Mozart to The Beatles, Queen and Prince, the group presents arrangements that aim to expose audiences to unique versions of well-known classics. Often, the orchestra premieres and introduces new works specifically written for this unique formation.
Members: Alex Goldblatt, Peter Pendowski, Ben Jackson, Matt Wherley, Anton Von Sehrwald, Jack Osborne, Thomas Dohner, Grace Elmer, Petar Jankovic, Daniel Duarte (Director)
Grammy Award-winning bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland and his band, Flamekeeper, headline the April First Thursday with an outdoor performance for the entire community. Cleveland hails from Henryville, IN, and he has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and before the U.S. Congress, among many other places. He has been recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Association as Fiddle Player of the Year 12 times.
Bloomington Delta Music ensures that college is a place where musicians can thrive and not forget about their passion. By giving students a safe, collaborative space and a network of varying skill levels, our members learn, expand and perform in a variety of Bloomington and IU settings.
UNi.SON is a K-pop inspired undergraduate dance team from Bloomington, Indiana. Originally a 7-member group known as IUnit, our humble beginnings started at the 2018 Korean Night presented by the Indiana University East Asian Studies Center. Since then, we have grown to over 40 members involved in dancing and media production, performing at events on campus and around the Midwest, and expanding our online presence to Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok. At UNi.SON, we hope to help individuals with little to no dance experience improve their expression through the movement of their body, while immersing them in a warm and friendly environment! With that said, we are not excluding those who have experience dancing. Anyone is welcome for whatever purpose, whether it is to dance or just to make friends, we welcome everyone! This is UNi.SON. This is a family.
Carpenter & Clerk is the name given to the long musical partnership of Tim JW Baker and Scott Currie. After meeting at an open mic in Bloomington, IN somewhere in the dim history before the year 2006, these two formed a duo named after their jobs and have been writing and singing songs together ever since. With influences ranging from Tom Waits to Jimmie Driftwood to Madeline Adams to Ween, they blend inventive string band styles with fearless lyrics and harmonies built of pure friendship.
Kay Krull is a group making slow burn jams on half broken equipment out of Bloomington, Indiana. Their songwriting integrates multi-layered metaphors, beautiful unpredictability, and familiar hooks informed by the minimalist folk of Karen dalton and Michael Hurley, pointed with the drama of Angel Olsen and Joanna Newsom.
Woodburn Clock Stage
Currently a Jazz student at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Kieran Brown is an award-winning multi genre vocalist, arranger, and educator. A native of Fairfield, Connecticut, Kieran plans to start a career in New York City working in the music industry and performing.
Currently in his second year at the Jacobs School of Music, Abhik Mazumder is a musician looking to expand and fuse audiences and styles. Playing the piano since the age of four, he has received numerous national awards as both a pianist and composer, and has performed several times in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Vienna House of Music. In recent years he has also featured as a soloist with five different orchestras and shared the stage with some of today's most prominent jazz musicians, including Micah Thomas, Vincent Gardner, John Raymond, Aaron Diehl, Byron Stripling, Bobby Floyd, and Antonio Hart. Recently, he has forayed into production, debuting in May with the single "Melty Valves" and just having released a second song entitled "Evermore" on Nov. 20.
Mikayla Geier brings a unique blend of sensitive vocals, heartfelt songwriting, and imaginative production to the indie-pop scene. The Vancouver native spent her early years training as a ballet dancer, but later turned to music as her artistic outlet. While studying business and ballet at Indiana University, she started pouring herself into songwriting. Her debut single “Deja You” was released in November 2019 along with a self-shot and directed music video. Her undeniably catchy melodies and relatable lyrics have quickly captured the hearts of listeners, and she is excited to continue sharing deeply personal observations on releases to come.
Gesto Vuoto is an alternative rock band based in Bloomington, IN. Their hard-hitting sound quickly found itself in the local music scene, with shows at multiple venues across the state. Formed in 2019, the band consists of Victor Roa (vocals, guitar), Yuri Santos (bass, and Devon Rigali (drums).
Eskenazi Museum of Art Terrace
4:00-5:30pm
Mira Walker playing "Spring Intermezzo" and "Summer Interlude" from Betty Jackson King's Four Seasonal Sketches
Fernando Garcia playing selections (TBD) from Margaret Bonds's Spiritual Suite
Amanda Andrishak playing "Out of the Silence" from William Grant Still's Seven Traceries
Joseph Stiefel playing 1st movement of Florence Price's Sonata in E minor
Jude Richardson playing 2nd movement of Florence Price's Sonata in E minor
5:30-7:00pm
Guochen Liu, performing Beethoven: Sonata in E Major, Op. 109
Hengyuan Zhang, performing Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24
Activity Booths
Stretching from the IU Arboretum, past the Eskenazi Museum of Art and Woodburn Hall, to the Conrad Prebys Amphitheater, the April First Thursday is filled with cool activity booths and hands-on experiences to fuel your creative spirit.
IU Arboretum
The Arts & Humanities Council's Student Guild presents a special community mural project: Collaborative Color Study. Inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky, this project invites guests to add their own creative flair to collaborative mural that will be hung in the student space in the new Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities.
Info coming soon.
Come visit the Asian Culture Center’s table during the First Thursdays Festival. We’ll have several fun, educational, and interactive activities that will help add to your knowledge about Asian American and Pacific Islander history and cultures and answers to your frequently asked questions about AAPIs! Fun giveaways await at our table!
IUCorps will be joining First Thursday to provide an interactive experience for you learn more about service, volunteerism, and advocacy. To do this, we will provide t-shirts that have the phrase, “I stand for” and have you complete the phrase with one issue or value you feel strongly about at this time. We will custom print your phrase or word and then heat set this onto the shirt. You will be able to wear your shirt and share your ideas with others while also having the opportunity to see and learn more about your peers stance as well. Our goal is to support is to help you understand the resources, tools, and programs available to you on campus that can assist you in achieving your volunteer goals.
Paper marbling is a centuries-old technique used by people around the world to express themselves. Drop by the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology table and learn how to create your art during this family-friendly activity.
Stop by the IMU Booth to get in the mood for spring! We’ll be hosting a spring-themed craft while we inform you about all of our upcoming events!
At the Korean Studies booth, people of all ages can enjoy various activities from learning how to write your name in the Korean alphabet (hangul) to trivia games with prizes such as Korean stickers, candy, and snacks. The trivia questions are available in English and Korean so bilingual individuals or those studying Korean can come test their language skills! K-pop fans will also be able to enjoy dance performances or join in for dance activities led by the UNi.SON dance troupe.
In & Around the Eskenazi Museum of Art
The Eskenazi Museum of Art will be open until 7:00pm during the First Thursday festival. Stop in and experience the BEST university art museum in the country!
Students from the Jacobs School of Music will offer a series of piano performances on the Eskenazi back terrace. (See schedule above.)
7:00pm
Jooyoung Shin, Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at Indiana University, discusses her artistic process and current projects with Elliot Reichert, Curator of Contemporary Art.
Jooyoung Shin is an Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at Indiana University. She has explored diverse areas in the fashion field as a designer, fashion historian, researcher, and educator. Design practice has been a fundamental component of her research program since the day she began her journey as a fashion design scholar. As a prolific designer, Dr. Shin participated in numerous peer-reviewed exhibitions and presented three solo exhibitions since 2008 to international and national audiences. She puts her own cultural heritage at the center of her creative work and her research interests focus on distinct cultural perceptions represented in fashion.
Earn free candy while learning more about IU's campus center for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). More information about the organization and fun games will all be located at our table! The Friends of Art Bookshop will also be here with student work, posters, art supplies, SOAAD mugs, and some crafting kits for sale.
Woodburn Hall to Prebys Amphitheater
The CANVAS/Union Board table will have a variety of craft activities and past Canvas Magazines for people to pick up! We will also be providing information about our organization.
Stop by the FYE table and help us build a puzzle. Students will decorate a puzzle piece, sharing what they bring to the community. When the puzzle is complete – a picture of IU will be created.
Each week, Indiana University Cinema will offer a chance to engage with us in our virtual screening room, presenting a mix of programs to include new releases, conversations with filmmaker friends, curated student film programs, and much more. The majority of these will be completely free to experience and have interactive Q&A sessions to offer communal film experiences during these times. Stop by IU Cinema’s table to get a taste of these virtual events, ask questions, and hear about Spring 2021 offerings. We will also be featuring a quiz game on our Spring 2021 for students to have a full understanding of our programs!
Paper marbling is a centuries-old technique used by people around the world to express themselves. Drop by the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology table and learn how to create your art during this family-friendly activity.
Join the Jacobs School of Music as they celebrate their 100th anniversary! Sign up to receive announcements about the 2021-22 Jacobs Season, explore courses for non-music majors, and take in virtual performances from anywhere in the world.
HHart is an organization at IU that celebrates the artistic talents of students and provides a platform for underrepresented artists. In March, we launched our online gallery showcasing over 70 students' artwork. For First Thursday, we created coloring pages of several pieces that were displayed in our showcase, and we will be handing those out with a pack of crayons. You can take one (or as many as you would like) to go with you, or you can stick around and have a socially distanced coloring session with us!
The Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) Program invites you to stop by our First Thursdays booth! Pick up a small pot, some soil, and seeds with instructions for planting. You will also have fun opportunities for photos, as part of a Flowering Democracy. Additionally, we will recognize the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the 26th amendment, which expanded the vote to citizens as young as 18 years old. Come join us at the PACE booth and help bring Democracy into full bloom!
Welcome to the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science and Amatria booth! Places & Spaces is a traveling exhibit that showcases innovative approaches to data visualization, critical for making sense of the large streams of data we confront on a daily basis. Enjoy interacting on our touch-screen kiosk with the Places & Spaces macroscopes, software tools that help us focus on patterns in data that are too complex to see with the naked eye. Additionally, we invite you to celebrate with us as we near the 3rd birthday of the living sculpture, Amatria, by viewing a short film and seeing up-close parts of the 3D-printed formations that make 'her' alive with artificial intelligence.
Themester’s fall theme is RESILIENCE. Learn about the College’s fall theme, pick up a poster and sign-up for more information and T-shirt and book giveaways.
Participants will have the opportunity to test their knowledge of South Asia (i.e., India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal), with the chance to win great prizes!
The Department of French and Italian is thrilled to be participating in First Thursdays for the third time! We will offer a trivia game about French, Francophone, and Italian culture plus hands-on coloring (for adults and children) of iconic art works and depictions of famous structures in France, Italy, and the Francophone world. Gloves will be required and social distancing enforced. Also, new this year and in line with the theme of local artists, we are proud to present art works by our students and faculty members, who will be present to chat about their art and also about the many fascinating course offerings and enrichment activities our Department offers.
Do we really have free will? Why should we be moral? What is the relation between our minds and our brains? How can I join Philosophy Club or Minorities and Philosophy (MAP)? Come to the Philosophy Lucy Booth for answers to these questions, and more!
The Russian and East European Institute will be featuring an East European instrument petting zoo in collaboration with East European Ensemble, where musicians will explain and demonstrate their instruments. Students will also have the opportunity to make a small [fits in pocket] size yarn craft from the Balkans and Romania while they listen to folk music from the region! Our craft, Mărțișor/Martenitsa, are symbols of spring!
